[catabur]

I'll throw my two cents in, too!

On Guard Activity:

One of the main problems with guards being active is that we all have lives. The three or four years ago when we first joined, a good chunk of us were probably in our mid-to-late teens. And now that it's been so long, we've all had to go to college or get a job or something like that. I know I'm hella busy for a good twelve hours of the day and get a small amount of freetime. Despite that, I try to get on at least once a week if I'm not out training (which I've been doing a hell of a lot of since army). The main problem, though, with getting on is that there is so much more everyone else would rather be doing.

Imagine working your twelve hour actual job and then coming home to stand around in the Cellsvich's square for hours on end with no actual RP because most people don't give two shits about the guard and don't try talking to them or are paranoid the slightest action they do will get them arrested so they move elsewhere or keep everything they say in whispers. Meanwhile, while everyone else is at least engaged in the game, you're bored out of your mind and can be doing anything else like hanging out with your real life friends or playing some cool video game. After years of this shit, a lot of guards get burned out from it. And then when they do actually get on, they get shitted on for being useless or never around (with some players taking the "guards are shit" to heart and making all their characters hate guards, regardless of everything).

(not to fucking mention that a lot of problems like happening at 2 o'clock in the morning on a workday or some shit)

On "Unjust" Prison Time:

I may come off like a dick when I say this, but it's pretty much how I feel: you do the crime, you do the time. And the people who complain about injustice are usually not nice people. I've seen a number of people claim to be this really dangerous criminal that's killed hundreds with just a flick of his wrist in some foreign country or something like that, which personally raises red flags with me. And then these people tend to have problems with authority, which does them zero good for them. Or try to do things behind a guard's back, thinking they don't notice (or assault a man right next to an actual NPC guard like some people who's names begin with "F&quot.

Now, there's some situations where I feel like a warning or a quick scare should come into play more, but it's mostly for teenagers and kids, unless they did something really bad.

On da Guard Meta

First off, I'd like to say that yes, guards handle matters differently from each other; it's human nature. It's also very IC. Bring it up to a higher-up if you feel this is unjust. Or pure OOC.
Secondly, yeah, a lot of guards also play villains and I also see no reason to say "stop having fun" to them. And if you want to know how to beat the guards, do this one tested and true method of escape: become vampire, kill self in prison, hide in Law's End and never log on again. Congrats, you fought the law and you won (this has happened since the dawn of guardhood).
One thing I'll say is that if your character is on the chopping block, a "major" crime and above should be the only things that get 'em the axe instead of just any crime. That'd at least help tone down those huge threads that complain about a violent criminal with a long track record being executed for something that can be seen as a joke.

That's probably it I have say for nowwwww. Except for, like, players shouldn't be too afraid of discussing their ideas of freeing their character from prison or the like with Chaos. Just expect to get a response in Valve Time.